Two European companies plan to jointly explore potential collaboration in the commercial aerospace market, building on existing ties in the defense area.

The move is by Terma A/S of Denmark and the Airbus Group, headquartered in France.

Terma, in announcing the collaborative agreement, said potential partnering opportunities will be explored in the areas of commercial aerostructure manufacturing, training and capability development, and research and development.

"We see potentially strong synergies between our companies," said Jens Maaløe, Terma's president and chief executive officer. "Terma's aerospace experience within composites structures technology provides promising opportunities for collaboration and for introduction of Terma into the Airbus Group supply chain for the their portfolio of civil aircraft. We look forward to combining Airbus' and our core capabilities and to investigating a shared number of business opportunities in the international market."

Added Christian Scherer, executive vice president of Marketing and Sales for Airbus Defence and Space: "We have had an excellent experience so far in working with the Danish industry, so I am delighted that we have agreed to see how we can grow that partnership in the future.

"For years, Airbus Group and Terma have been working together in the areas of aircraft survivability equipment, radar, and surveillance technology. This agreement broadens the scope of potential cooperation across other areas of our global business."